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Mouse in the House

I've been told that this is the time of year that mice may enter into one's home - when it's cold outside. We have been in this house for six months, and have not seen any evidence of mice before this. Two days ago we saw one mouse in our newly finished basement and tried to catch it, unsuccessfully. The very next day we found it, caught it and released it outside. I'm hoping that it was the same mouse that we saw on these two different occassions. We found that it had been feeding on lawn seed which we had stored. Can I assume that there is more than this one mouse in the house? Do mice ever travel alone??? If we were to set up bait and wait for another, what is the length of time that would be sufficient for us to believe there are no more in the house?

Hi WaltWasz, I am currently dealing with this situation at a summer cottage which I oversee off season and they are not as easy to figure out as some may suggest.Ideally,you need to find an entrance/exit that the mouse uses unless this one just happened to get in by accident.Get rid of anything the mouse might eat, and look for chewed up paper and/or droppings which look like black rice.Mouse urine is quite acrid so sniff around especially if you have a refrige in the basement(they love to get underneath where it's warm).If you have no patience (like me) pick up some bait stations at the home center and follow directions...no more mice!By the way,I'd leave the bait for a month or so after any activity ceases.

Dear Walt,It has been my experience that if you see one mouse that there are definetly more. Mice do indeed find warm, safe areas to nest at this time of year. What I use is a "Victor" glue trap. It emits an odor of peanut butter to attract the little buggers and is very effective. One note though. Do not fold up the trap as stated in the directions. Lay it flat along the walls of your last sighting. Mice do not run across the floor unless frightened. Move the location of the traps frequently as mice as well as rats are suspicious by nature. When caught, pinch their little necks with a pair of pliers and pull them off of the glue trap and reuse it. Before PETA gets involved, let me state that I don't care for their opinion. Mice are vermin and need to be eradicated. LOL,Len

More $.02 worth -- Store pet food (and human food) in sealed containers, not in paper bags, cardboard boxes, etc. and not on the floor. Same is true for any kind of seeds, whether grass seed or bird/squirrel food.

hello i had mice problems but i fixed it.Mice kept on running in and out of my garage but i use the elecrtic mice replelleres.There are unltasonic ones selling for about $18 CND (these work for about 1 month)then there is a better one called "pest offense" this works all of the time and it is great.It also works on some other rodant pests. GOTO www.pestoffence.com P.S this will keep all mice for a very long time